No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

pollyanna_26

Good to see you back SM . I don't think you are being overly sensitive at all . I loathe the attitude which has become very common amongst people who should behaving in a professional manner and get on with the job they are employed to do . Such behaviour is in my opinion rude and at times hurtful .
I was playing soup tetris at the weekend sorting my freezer out . You've reminded me I still need to recover my ironing board . Mine is many years old , a wide shirt board and luckily the top is wood . I have recovered it a number of times with thick felt type underlay and whatever fabric I have left over , at the moment there's some Cath Kidston left over from curtains I made years ago . I've searched the web for the board but have never found it again . However in true old style it seems to endure with a quick revamp .
You seem to have had a varied break . Sending positive vibes for news re the job . There's nothing worse than uncertainty so fingers crossed all will be well . Stay warm it's freezing here so probably much colder for you .
polly x

fuddle

Aw scottishminnie I've been there in terms of 'taking things to heart'. Looking back I admonished myself for being too sensitive and I still don't think I was because some of the stuff said was downright hurtful. That said I have my confidence back and I think it's because of that whereby folk don't see a weakness to want to be mean. What I do notice is people like MIL, who know how I have been upset by words in the past, now apologises for being a bit controversial in case I take offence when really all that does is cause me to laugh and reply with summat like 'don't be daft'. At the risk of telling grandma to suck eggs, and I know it's easier said than done, try to brush it off and puff up your shoulders as your armour... but I would be sad if you blamed yourself for your own weakness for other people's insensitive, and lets be honest, quite ignorant remarks and wholeheartedly agree with Pollyanna - not very professional and both instances could do with improving their small talk. :cool:

As you may have gathered this head won't sleep again. I dropped off about 10.30 completely fine and woke 2.30 with a cold. Of course I am now worried it may go all sinister on me so up I got and supped an effervescent vitamin C.

At a loss what to do now as the only pressing (ha, pun ) job is the ironing and am I 'eck doing that at this hour. Pollyanna now seems a good time to look at container vertical gardening eh?

[Deleted User]

I had a thought....Oh NOOOOOOO I hear you think.....well it may be an OK one! FUDDLE my pet, if you can't or decide not to install a woodburner indoors all is not lost there are a couple of alternatives that will get you the thing you want but in the yard. We have an OZPIG which is an outdoor free standing pot bellied wood stove for cooking on and warming the area, runs on scrap wood and cost us £200 some years ago. It came with everything it needs to run in the initial package so we got the chimney, the fire grid, and a poker. Convenient in that when she's cooled down and been cleared you can keep her in the shed. If you look on E.bay you will also find outdoor PIZZA OVENS made of cast metal which also run on scrap wood, less portable than an ozpig and would have to stand out in the yard permanently and be covered as the metal can be cracked in a very bad frost. Slightly more expensive than the ozpig but under £500. Another alternative would be to actually build yourselves an outdoor brick pizza oven, I've got a book on how to on the bookshelf which I can easily send up to you so you can have a read on the method. Nell has a steel firepit with a hanging grill over it that is suspended from a steel tripod and cooks amazingly well, also heats a fair area around it and if you have the enclosed yard that would be warm while you used it, cost £99 and is amazingly efficient in that it runs for a long time on little fuel wood. Another alternative is a FRONTIER STOVE also on E.bay which is a long narrow chamber of metal with a chimney on it and two cooking rings with a front loading door. It's up on legs and very similar to the ozpig but usually slightly cheaper to buy just had a look and they have one on now for £215 that also has the hot water sleeve that fixes found the chimney already included in the price. ALL these things are achieveable and would give you the cooking facility you would like to have, they won't heat the house but would give you hot food, hot water and a warm space in the yard. Hope that's some use petal, Lyn xxx.

monnagran

Scottishminnie, I don't remember any rule that says Christmas can only be celebrated by children. Indeed, my Christmas is, and always has been, completely contained in the Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College. Always listened to on Christmas Eve on my own as my children think I'm mad.

And please, please, please avoid being 'normal' at all costs. Normal equals boring and who wants to be that.
In any case, who knows what normal is, like beauty it's all in the eye of the beholder. I know myself to be a beige/grey run-of-the-mill mouse. Various friends who should know better have described me as bohemian, outrageous and off-the-wall bonkers. Poor deluded fools. As I said, all in the eye of the beholder.

It's no wonder you can't sleep Fuddle, your mind must be buzzing with plans and excitement. I find that Sudoku is the best getting back to sleep aid. Give me a good killer puzzle to do and my poor brain shuts down in protest.

Well done with the ironing board Polly. I am going to blow caution to the winds and buy a new one when I finally get my own home again.
I actually enjoy an afternoon spent ironing but so few people seem to iron these days I almost feel embarrassed to admit it.

Brr, its chilly today.

x

[Deleted User]

SM my dear YOU are normal as are the rest of our little band of friends here on the thread it's the rest of the world that's oddly out of kilter pet. As for not celebrating Christmas because you don't have children around??? what an ignoramus that person must be, how narrow a vision must she have of this world? I feel pity for such a closed mind that can compartmentalise something as significant as the Christmas message into a day for the kiddies!

If you took out some of your home made soups from the freezer and put them directly into the fridge packed tightly together they would take their time defrosting and last longer so you could use them from the outside in and they'd still stay fresh thus giving you the much needed freezer room for desserts!

Chin up chicken and enjoy CHRISTMAS!!! xxx.

fuddle

I do remember you writing about your Ozpig Lyn. I have googled the little fella many a time. Thank you. I will look into it (you know I like the oven ) when I have some calm headspace. I do have news on the stove. DH has been into a fireplace place to talk about it. Of course we don't know for sure the measurements but it appears that there are regulations for minimal hearth sizes. With it being an inset just in a standard chimney breast without hearth overhang it's highly likely that that there won't be enough hearth at the front. It won't be easy as replacing the hearth because it's fixed within the side of the walls. No stove unless we smash it about and I'm not up for that, not mentally, not financially. Maybe in the future but not now. They guy has said to have a look at something called opti myst. It sounds like it's an electric 'stove' using water vapour and light to create a flame effect. I'm going to do that later.

monna do you know what you're right. I have so much on at the minute and it's enough to crack up the most stable person. I have probate imminent, house to sell that's on it's last legs, house to empty that contains so much pain, I'm dealing with the estate myself because all of the debt letters would cost us a fortune in solicitors fees, having to face my own financial failings in dealing with the debt collection agencies and now trying to buy a house after mine was repossessed, yeah, buy a house and now, this morning I have emailed educational psychology to see if they can help with DD's memory issues without cooperation from the school before I take her down the clinical route and a snotty email from the headteacher in reply to mine letting them know of my intentions to seek outside agency help. Did I mention I have had pneumonia twice and my mam died. Oh yeah, I did. :rotfl: Plenty :cool:;)

Ignore all that because I'm on top of it and still excited about my new home. I am in a good position compared to so, so many and I will not grumble (much:p ) and now because I have wallowed I have allowed my teabag to stew my tea. Karma me dears. Stay positive.

pollyanna_26

Fuds I'm just on my way out I imagine the electric stove is the Dimplex optimyst . Have a good google as reviews are very mixed .
I remember reading on the In my home thread very mixed opinions and also online elsewhere . Just a thought .
Back later polly x

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE they will be able to install a slate/stone/marble hearthstone on the floor in front of the wall that the inglenook is in and that will fulfil the regulations. They may have to put a similar piece of material on the base of the inglenook for the stove to stand on. Regs are you must have a minimum of 12" in front of the front of the stove, very doable sweetie.

Vertical gardening idea, the local playgroup here have just stood redundant pallets up against the fence surrounding the play area and popped flower pots full of growing things in the gap between the floor of the pallet and the foot that holds it off the ground. That limits them to small pots but they grow many things. Your Oh So Handy DH could probably make pallets wider by taking off the 'foot' and giving it longer bits at the side, reattaching the foot and then you'd be able to use bigger pots on the bottom layer and have 2 x pallets on top of each other sideways (does that sound sensible?), the wider one at the bottom and a standard one on top. That should give you quite a large area of growing space, you could attach the pallets to the wall/fence to stabilise them too. You can grow a fair range of veg and fruits in pots and supply a good amount of food that way.

scottishminnie

Fuddle - my mother has a Dimplex optimist as the opening wasn't big enough for a "proper" stove. It's nice but she would be the first to admit she wishes she had looked into the options a bit more before deciding on it.

I'm just back from a shopping trip picking up lots of itty bitty things so having a quick cup of tea and watching Countdown (my guilty pleasure) on catch up before I put things away.

I ventured into Lakeland for an ironing board cover earlier - came out empty handed though. I think I expected to pay around £5 - the cheapest was £14 so I think I will be shopping around!

Thank you all for your wise and kind words. People just seem to have lost the ability to think before they speak these days. Maybe because I work in an environment where every statement is pulled apart for hidden meanings I'm probably over conscious of what I say. I think I'll stick to my diplomacy approach though - safer all round!

Bigjenny

scottishminnie don't know if you have a Wilkinsons near you but they have a range of ironing board cover in different sizes starting around £3.50